Anthony Kennedy

Supreme Court justices are notoriously opaque when it comes to detailing why they take up some cases but reject seemingly similar appeals. This trait was pushed front and center this week as the Supreme Court decided to hear debate on EPA enforcement of the Clean Water Act despite rejecting a similar case brought by General Electric Co. just three weeks earlier, reports the New York Times. Both cases claimed that the EPA routinely violates due process under the Fifth Amendment, but environmental lawyers predict the Supreme Court decided to hear Sackett v. EPA because it included the question of wetlands regulation, to which the Court has previously shown “overt hostility.”